Submitted by Kristina Demou on the 2017 spring semester program in Rome, Italy…
It’s no secret that outside of the United States, Americans aren’t always adored. I’ve had my fair taste of rude waiters, hateful locals and general disrespect from random people simply because I am from America. All of our country’s flaws and mistakes are generalized to every American; for one thing, they blame us all for electing Trump and they certainly have other general misconceptions about us as a whole. While I can certainly see where they might get those stereotypes from, they are just that – stereotypes. It is frustrating to walk into a store and want to ask for help, but know I could be treated differently because I am from America. Just earlier today, I was yelled at and refused service at a store because I was American and I couldn’t understand what the worker was explaining to me in Italian and he grew impatient with me and simply told me to leave rather than trying to help me. I was clearly upset, and I hadn’t done anything to provoke the negative behavior, but because I was American, the worker just saw me as another entitled American too lazy to learn the language and not worthy of his time.
These brushes with anti-American hostility have opened my eyes to how so many others are treated daily because of their religion, nationality, sexuality, etc. We still struggle with this a lot in America as well; we treat groups of people as lesser simply because of a few people acting a certain way. Those bad behaviors immediately get attributed to the entire group of people, and all the rest who have done no wrong are left to suffer the consequences anyway. Sure, I have had times where people have been mean or disrespectful to me because I’m American when all I wanted to do was order food, but even that is minor compared to what other people face in terms of discrimination, so I still can’t fully relate to the level they go through. I think if more people had to spend time in an environment where they were not the majority, it could put a lot into perspective. It probably couldn’t get rid of all the hate that unfortunately exists in this world, but it could bring us all one step closer to understanding each other better.
